Has anyone out there in the flight world ever used flaperons as spoilers? I'm about to maiden my Senior Telemaster and have been toying with the idea of a little negative flaperon control to dump some of the plane's lift when needed (it's a floater).

I tried this in the RealFlight G3.5 simulator and it worked fine but that's not real world.

I have it set up on my 3d planes...mixed to the elevator...

when I apply elevator in harriers or hovers....it automatically adds a little spoileron....

I also use it in landing, but only after the plane has touched the ground....land normal, as soon as it touches the ground....feed in spoileron to hold it to the ground and slow it down....

I wish I had built in spoilers or air brakes but now that the plane is covered I don't want to go back which is why I'm interested in the spoilerons. Of course I could just improve my flying skills and do a slide slip.

According to Hobby Lobby the Telemaster is not three point friendly and if you aren't careful will balloon after touch down so maybe waiting (as you suggest) until the last seconds will be an effective cure.

Don I don't know what engine you are running but what about a flatter pitch prop? This should slow down your final. If you decide to go spoileron just start small. Maybe 5% mixed with elev on a switch.

David

I have the Saito .82 four stroke mounted. I'll look at the pitch issue.

I'm thinking of using the channel 7 knob so I can dial negative in aileron slowly and observe the effects as I approach. The scary thing is not knowing how the plane will react at declining speeds but the Senior Telemaster has a huge wing so it'll probably behave and offer few surprises.

Sound like your on the right track Don. If you want to try another prop a 14x4W would give the plane some braking when at idle. It might even swing a 15x4W.

David

If you want to use spoilers for landing, you don't want them hooked to the elevator, unless you are doing 3D elevators.

You need a Flaperon wing type, then mix throttle-master & flaps-slave.
Adjust the flaperons so they go up a half inch to start with the throttle at idle.
Set the offset so the spoilers are down at half throttle.
Pick a convenient switch to arm them. I use the landing switch.

After you arm the mix, at any throttle setting above half, your ailerons are in the normal position. At half throttle, they start moving up and are fully deployed at idle.
Any time you add power to adjust your final approach, the spoilers drop down slightly.
On a go around, when you pass half throttle, they are back in the aileron position.

You'll need to fly and try the amount of up aileron you set. You can use the knob to make this adjustment, but I fly so many different planes, I would lose track of it, so I keep the know turned off.

The spoilers work very well in high winds and in cross winds. On a high wind day, you can make a near vertical decent, depending on your spoiler setting.

The low pitch prop works to slow you down, but not like the spoiler setting.

I use a flaperon wing type on all my planes whether I am going to use spoilers or stunt flaps. With this wing type, you can individually adjust each aileron for centering and end point. Then if I'm not using actual stunt flaperons, I leave the elev-flap mix set to 0.

These "new" radios are really something. I say new because I only recently returned to the hobby after twenty years layoff. I tried my hand at mixing on a trainer I own but I wasn't too crazy about the way it handled. Since then (at least for now) I prefer to enter the spoileron movement manually, a little at a time in the beginning.

I have a Spacewalker II under construction. I am going to investigate actual air brakes on that one.

I also have a Sig 1/5 scale Cub nearing completion. I'll hold off using spoilerons for the maiden but I suspect that plane will benefit from the spoilerons.

Regards